Steve Hughes, state director of Oregon Working Families, stands in front of OHSUs South Waterfront building, near a proposed facility for the Knight Cancer Research Center. Hughes says city leaders need to pay more attention to fostering jobs for working-class people. February 2014. (Portland Tribune/Jonathan House)

WASHINGTON (AP) – U.S. employers added jobs at a solid pace in March in the latest sign that the economy is rebounding from a weak stretch brought on by a harsh winter.

The Labor Department says employers added 192,000 jobs, slightly below February’s total of 197,000. Employers also added a combined 37,000 more jobs in February and January than previously estimated.

The unemployment rate was unchanged at 6.7 percent. But a half-million Americans started looking for work last month, and most of them found jobs. The increase in job-seekers is a sign that they are more optimistic about their prospects.